There are some things that will always be in competition. The Capulets and the Montagues; William Brown and Hubert Lane; the NHS and Bupa. They thrive on the tension, and there is always a story to be told.
Such is the case with schooling in this country. The education system, and the battle between private and state education, receives vast amounts of media attention. We often hear about why the state system is ‘failing’ — or conversely, more recently, triumphing.
Then there’s the perennial university conundrum: last year the Department for Education predicted that privately educated applicants would be five times more likely to gain admission to Oxbridge than students from state schools.
Add to that our social attitudes. We in Britain obsess over schooling. The value that we place on education is like no other: to some, it makes perfect sense to remortgage their house so their child can go to a school that has an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
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